Hand Sewn 8 Yard Kilt Price List and Comparison

[ForresterModern]

One other you might want to include, at least for folks on this side of the big pond, would be J Higgins. Although their website does not list whther their kilts are hand or machine sewn, I remember when I ordered mine being told it was going to be a combination of the two. Their prices are dependent on tartan weight and hip size and range from US $350-525.

My first kilt in (what else) Forrester Modern 13oz Strathmore is still among the best made and best looking kilts in my limited collection. I would use them again but for finding my own kiltmaker for most of my kilts as I can then search for bargains on tartans I like and have them handsewn up for cheaper than I can have the kilt fabric ordered and made up by most of the retailers, at least most of the time.



jeff

[bricelythgoe]

I will be adding a few more kilt makers to this list and changing the statistics appropriately. I apologize for the spelling errors and will change them as well.

Brice

[bonnie heather]

Thanks for researching and putting this list together, Bricekolob.
I would be very grateful to be included in the list, if possible.
I sew my kilts completely by hand (except machine sewing the top band, after hand basting it to the front apron to carefully match the tartan).

Bonnie Heather Greene, kiltmaker
$475 for an 8 yard hand stitched kilt. (If the tartan is unusually expensive or needs to be custom woven, the price would be more.)
If the tartan fabric is provided to me, I can hand stitch a kilt for a reasonable labor cost.

My small website is bonniekilts.com
I hope to advertise on the XMKS forum sometime in the future.

[bricelythgoe]

I updated the list with Barb T, Bonnie Heather Green, and Lady Chrystel. Everyone, please look over the list one more time to make sure there are not any more mistakes. Thanks to Scotweb and Keltoi for catching the ones I have already made.

[bricelythgoe]

There seems to have been a little discussion in this thread at how useful this list might be. As I stated, each person can look at this list and use it how they want (or not use it at all!). Although there are many things that go into making a kilt, I think for most people PRICE is the best place to start (especially on the first few kilts) and then move on from there. It should not be the only thing to look at, but probably will be one of the first. From there the consumer can look at other things that are important to them: customer service, experience, training, materials, etc.

I am not sure if this is worthy of being a "sticky" thread, but I think it would be a good idea to have some place where people can comment on and rate different kilt makers. Although, that might be hard since advertising is paid for on here. Not sure if that would be considered advertising or not.

[artificer]

There seems to have been a little discussion in this thread at how useful this list might be. As I stated, each person can look at this list and use it how they want (or not use it at all!). Although there are many things that go into making a kilt, I think for most people PRICE is the best place to start (especially on the first few kilts) and then move on from there. It should not be the only thing to look at, but probably will be one of the first. From there the consumer can look at other things that are important to them: customer service, experience, training, materials, etc.

I am not sure if this is worthy of being a "sticky" thread, but I think it would be a good idea to have some place where people can comment on and rate different kilt makers. Although, that might be hard since advertising is paid for on here. Not sure if that would be considered advertising or not.

Thanks for all the work compiling and correcting. I think this is a very handy tool on the road to selecting a kilt maker.

Will it be the ONLY tool? for most, I doubt it, but as you said, price is a great place to start. Price is, for most people, an issue. From there, you can determine who can best help you achieve your kilted goals while staying within your budget.

Now to the HARD part... keeping it up to date!

[bricelythgoe]

Also, I did not add in ANY discounts to any of the prices. This includes X Marks The Scot Discounts, since I do not know who gives them. However, if you do offer one please respond to me in some way and I think I will include it (not sure exactly how though). Keltoi and Scotweb do it. Does anyone else?

[sydnie7]

I've already forwarded a link to this thread to two different folks I spoke to at Vista Games this weekend. One has had issues with an order through Kilts by Susan and the other just didn't know where to start looking. As others have said, price is not the only question but just having a compilation of supplier names is a great start -- and I've told them, once they start thinking seriously about one or more suppliers, to do an XMarks search for reviews to get the whole story.

Thanks for your work on this!

[Danwell]

You are incorrect, I'm afraid. The option is available to everyone. All one has to do is join X Marks the Scot to receive the 10% discount. (Which I'm sure most of have done! )

Those discounts may well be available to anyone in the sense that Xmarks is a public forum which is free to join. However, it isn't advertised on the website that a discount is available.

This means that the discount is not available to anyone who stumbles accross their website, and means that the correct retail price is the price that is listed on their website. Should that matter given that this data is compiled on Xmarks meaning that the prices should be relevant to us? Yeah, I think it should. The info Brice is compiling is the retail price.

[Ancienne Alliance]

I think the fact that this is based on price alone is good in one way---it hits you where it counts, in the wallet----but bad in other ways, as it fails to include those other intangibles that are hard to list on a website, and which you don't get to know about until you have at least cursorily worked with a kiltmaker enough to get to know them at least a little bit. Many have had great relationships with different kiltmakers-----Ron with Kathy Lare, me with Bonnie Heather, many with Lady Chrystel and Barb and Matt and Wally and others here on the forum. Some have had good and or bad experiences with some of the more corporate vendors listed above and who may advertise on the site.

It might be valuable to gather some of those types of reviews together by kiltmaker in companion threads or composites of past postings about experiences with specific vendors and individual kiltmakers with this in mind---finding out more about the intangibles to add to our insight Bryce has brought about the generic financial part of the deal. I know at least one other kilt forum which has a section listing kiltmakers and vendors individually, and perhaps we should consider something like that as a place to post our composite experiences so that if Kiltwearer X desires a new kilt he/she might be able to peruse the reviews of several different kiltmakers in one compilation, instead of having to do individual searches for posts about those kiltmakers. It might even give a newer member of the group more alternatives to finding what they are specifically looking for, while providing more complete information about each different kiltmaker's price, style, communication, etc..... It would simply be composite information from reviews and comments fomr customers who might or might not be satisfied to varying degrees, rather than a more mechanical catalogue of prices and options, to address some of those intangibles in the kilt ordering process.

jeff

Excellent observation, Jeff;

Please check out this link for reviews :

http://www.lady-chrystel-kilts.com/s...timonials.html


Best,

Robert